Unlike Antifa, the FBI says Proud Boys is NOT a domestic terrorist group
(National Sentinel) Wrong: One of the Left’s favorite political tactics is to label every right-leaning conservative group as bigots, racists, homophobes or, in the age of POTUS Donald Trump, domestic terrorists.
That’s what the office of Clark County Sheriff Chuck E. Atkins in southwestern Washington, attempted to do last month when it issued a report claiming that federal officials claim that the group Proud Boys is an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism,” the Washington Post reported.
“The FBI categorizes the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to White Nationalism,” noted the report, which was obtained (leaked to?) and then published by Property of the People, a nonprofit that claims to be all about ‘government transparency’ but which is really just another Leftist anti-Trump front group.
“The FBI has warned local law enforcement that the Proud Boys are actively recruiting in the Pacific Northwest and that some in the group have contributed to the escalation of violence at political rallies held on college campuses.”
Well, not exactly. In fact, not at all.
In a subsequent report published Saturday, a “high-ranking” FBI official denied that and stated emphatically that the bureau does not consider Proud Boys to be a threat to civil society or a domestic terrorist group.
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The paper reported:
According to the Oregonian, Special Agent in Charge Renn Cannon said during a discussion with Portland-area journalists that the FBI had not intended to designate the group as extremist during a slide show with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. That office later released a report that said the FBI considers the group to have ties to white nationalism, an assertion to which the Proud Boys objected.
In fact, Cannon made it clear that the FBI is not in the business of violating Americans’ First Amendment freedom of association rights so long as the group they belong to is not focused on criminal activity.
“Our focus is not on membership in particular groups but on individuals who commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security,” a statement distributed by spokeswoman Kelsey Pietranton in November said.
“When it comes to domestic terrorism, our investigations focus solely on criminal activity of individuals — regardless of group membership — which appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce the civilian population or influence the policy of the government by intimidation or coercion. The FBI does not and will not police ideology.”
Now, speaking of the Left and domestic terrorism, during the 2016 campaign cycle both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security — under Barack Obama, no less — did consider the Left-wing anarchy group Antifa to be engaging in (wait for it) ‘domestic terrorism.’
Politico reported:
Federal authorities have been warning state and local officials since early 2016 that leftist extremists known as “antifa” had become increasingly confrontational and dangerous, so much so that the Department of Homeland Security formally classified their activities as “domestic terrorist violence,” according to interviews and confidential law enforcement documents obtained by POLITICO.
Since well before the Aug. 12 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly, DHS has been issuing warnings about the growing likelihood of lethal violence between the left-wing anarchists and right-wing white supremacist and nationalist groups.
Previously unreported documents disclose that by April 2016, authorities believed that “anarchist extremists” were the primary instigators of violence at public rallies against a range of targets. They were blamed by authorities for attacks on the police, government and political institutions, along with symbols of “the capitalist system,” racism, social injustice and fascism, according to a confidential 2016 joint intelligence assessment by DHS and the FBI.
Both agencies noted that “after” POTUS Trump was elected Antifa members began to focus on his supporters, though clearly, the group was targeting them long before the president beat Hillary Clinton in November 2016.
The Left will continue to portray groups like Proud Boys as “male chauvinists” and “white nationalists,” the latter code for “white supremacists,” and thus “dangerous to America” when in fact, the FBI believes their groups are the real threat to civil society.
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